PLG - Preparation for Initial Google Class on Air

Today's session was a follow up from a Term Two PLG where we were introduced to the concept of the Manaiakalani Google Class on Air.

Today Matt Goodwin returned to give us more insight and guidance into how he had progressed throughout the year.  It was inspiring to see how he had moved from filming lessons that he was undertaking with particular reading groups to showing us how he is teaching whole class lessons.

Some of the advice shared were the following:

• Think about how you can use screen-casting to demonstrate what the learners are accessing on their devices or through their portals.  This can also help pan out any technical issues you may receive from the filming.
• Think about your environment - look at where you are filming.  Unfortunately windows are not your friend in regards to light.  You will also need to consider lighting if your video is showing you present off screens.
• Feedback from viewers is that they are really interested in hearing what the learners are saying about the lessons so investing in or finding a quality way to record audio is key.  Matt suggested recording in two formats (ie, through the recording device and having a second unit close to you) may be beneficial.
• With most lessons plans, you could be doing this over multiple days.  When you are selecting content, it may be more beneficial for viewers to pull this from either your first or second day when the concepts are fresher in the learners minds.

We have been set with the challenge creating one of these lessons for this term so the remainder of the day was spent creating the framework for how a site page looks like and then starting to plan the concept/lesson that we will teach.

I have decided to work with some of my learning with one of my reading groups, hence the exciting name above!  Stay tuned for an update in a few weeks - for those who read this regularly, try to keep me honest so I can share this :)

PLG - Visible Teaching and Learning

Today's PLG was an insightful one as it challenged my thinking as a teacher.  When designing learning, am I creating experiences that will inspire and empower my learners or am I tailoring these lessons for a style of learning which mirrors my own?  Interesting to stop and ponder on this as I feel that I am defaulting to the latter subconsciously.

The focus of today's session was to help us understand further on how visible teaching and learning could help accelerate shift.

We were fortunate to watch a short video from Chrissie Butler from Core Education where she spoke about the Universal Design for Learning and this stuck home with me.  Was I limiting my learners ability to learn by only offering them a choice of two to three resources and if I were to create more multimodal learning opportunities, how would this impact on my learners?

I particular enjoyed this next slide as it helped give me more awareness and confidence to use more resources when designing learning.

By recognising the use of texts in these different formats, I could then support learners better by offering them a choice of how they would prefer to engage with the topics.  Please note, where you see the word "text", this does not mean an actual book - it may mean a video, an audio file or an article online.

The remainder of the day was left to us to use some of this knowledge to help develop some tools that we could use for the remainder of the year or next year in some cases (check out Georgia's post about her plans for next year!).

I chose to look at some elements to my literacy programme that could open up links to other curriculum areas which again is something to aspire to.  We are focusing on reading picture books to our learners at the moment to develop their discussion skills and I was very keen to read them some stories that I read when I was their age.  I did stop here for a moment and thought about whether I was defaulting to a learning style that I enjoyed however thought that this could be the springboard to some different elements.  Here is the initial brainstorm:

Next steps is to discuss this brainstorm with my mentor and look at creating some different resources based on the feedback from that conversation.  Stay tuned for an update on how this may look - I'm pretty excited!

PLG - Coding To Game

In today's session, we got the opportunity to code.  I am a complete novice to coding - I have heard a lot about coding and the opportunities to bring those skills into the classroom.

We got an Hour of Code where we were able to code in order to create a simple game.  There were two options - a beginners version which allows users to link games similar to Lego blocks and a version that uses Javascript (similar to HTML).  Choosing to stick with the first option, I was able to create a simple game similar to Flappy Birds.  Check it out here:

The discussions that supported this week's PLG is how the skills involved in coding may be valuable for our future-focused learners.  

I have made links with coding with both numeracy and literacy skills.  Using coding to make links with planning for writing is a standout for me - I have learners who struggle with this part of the process so for them to walk through steps in order to create a game would really be insightful so watch this space!

Ten Weeks...

As I sit here, going through my plans for next week, I had to stop and think that I only have ten weeks remaining my first year as a teacher.  I remember people telling me at the beginning of the year that it was going go quick and man, it has flown!

This upcoming term is again promising to be a busy one with reporting, end of year preparations and ensuring that the kids are feeling empowered and confident for the upcoming year.  It is also a time of trepidation as I begin to think about what next year may bring.

However I need to focus on the term ahead.  Stopping this afternoon, I realised that I had gotten caught up in the routines of the school day and I was feeling a bit flat and some of the fun that I wanted to bring to my lessons everyday had been missing.  That is a challenge that I have set myself for Term 4 - to have fun with my teaching and take risks.  I had done this in the last two weeks of Term 3 when my mentor was sick - I did things that I may have been somewhat apprehensive to have tried earlier.  Where did this apprehension come from?  Was it a lack of confidence in my own practice?  Was it me having a better understanding of my learners and their capabilities?  Or was it the perception of my lessons by my colleagues?  All good points to ponder on but not dwell on.

This term's goal is about growing the assessment capability of the kids by sharing assessment data, collaborating with them on success criteria and plotting out next steps and using the appropriate tools to help stretch their learning.  This goal makes sense to me given the focus on reporting and making OTJs for end of year.  It also feels right for the kids to start looking at our tools in more detail now that they have had two terms to learn how to operate the systems.

As a cohort, we have been challenged with making more links between curriculum areas and this is something that I feel will be a constant goal as I progress in my practice.  However if I am to take risks this term, what better way to experiment with these connections and see what impacts this may have on both my practice and my learners!

Stay tuned - I have made it another mini challenge to try and blog more regularly.  I admire people like Ashley and Georgia who do this so deftly!

PLG - Ignite Talk with Keynote

Today we were able to build on our knowledge of Keynote to both create and present an ignite talk.  I had seen these presentations in life at the recent Manaiakalani Hui and had marvelled at how deftly the presenters were able to get through their presentations so confidently.

An ignite talk is where you are given five minutes to present 20 slides (each 15 seconds long).  The presentation automatically runs through so you have no control on when it may change, ensuring that you are prepared and can deal with with the sudden change of slide.

We each got to randomly draw a topic to present - there were a series of readings and our presentation was to help the cohort understand the reading without having to read it.  My reading was if we should use Pokemon Go as an educational tool in the classroom.  This was quite interesting as it was something that a) I had prior knowledge of and b) had already brought into the classroom for both literacy and numeracy.  So I was able to draw on some of my own experiences towards the end of the presentation.

While I have no problems presenting to others, I did find it challenging to find what content needed to be displayed on each slide and I think this is an art within itself.  Pictures do speak louder than words so it is key to have strong and easy to understand imagery to help support your message rather than detract from it.

Unfortunately I am having a few technical issues at the moment and I cannot load up my keynote so will work on this over the next few days and see if I can share it.

PLG - Keynote

Today's PLG focused on the use of Keynote - this is an app which has been primarily designed as a medium for presentations however today we were allowed sandpit time to explore the possibilities for other things!

As a cohort, we discussed the use of Keynote over Google Slides or Powerpoint and it soon became evident that this app had more functionality.  The fact that you could use it and not be so reliant of your sources of wifi is a saving fact within itself!

Some of the addition features that we were made aware of today were:

• Using keynote to help design logos, banners etc.
• Using the app to build animations which can be uploaded into both iMovie or Garageband.  My love of stop motion was renewed as a lot of the cohort were creating some pretty impressive animations!
• Using it as a form of Photoshop to help edit images

While you can do so much within Keynote, it is always good to remember that "less is more" and while you can do all this amazing work with creating animations, you need to be aware of your audience and your message.

I was mesmerised throughout the day by what was happening up on the screen that I found myself observing more rather than playing so I look forward to experimenting with the app more this week as I prepare to use it to give an "ignite" presentation at our next week's PLG.

Film Festival Reflection

I am almost finished with my film festival entry - it has been a great chance to do some different learning with the kids as well reflect on some of my teaching practice!  Unfortunately I will not be able to show you the finished result until it airs at the Manaiakalani Film Festival in November as it is meant to be a surprise for the learners to see a film they helped create and starred in debut on the big screen!

Today we came together to spend the day editing and bounce ideas off each other in relation to our films progress so far.  It was great to see such a diverse range of films and I was really impressed with everyone's ideas and skills with filming and the editing.  We were able to share what we had completed so far and get feedback from the cohort.

I spent most of the day shearing time off my footage which was originally around 20 minutes with the goal to get it under three minutes.  This took a lot of watching and then rewinding, however, I made links with an earlier discussion we had in the morning about rewindable learning.

The concept of rewindable learning is something that we have learned about a lot this year but having to use it myself today to better apply understanding to my growing iMovie skills - I can see the benefit in using in more so in my practice.  I have already started this week to make the use of video more as a resource in my design of learning and have had some success with some workshops we are currently running in our learning space.

By having resources available in a format that learners can rewatch, pause or skip ahead, this allows great agency of how the learner is managing their learning and allows them to become less reliant on instruction.  I also found that learners used these resources to come and have more critical conversations with me when conferencing.  I was hearing a lot of "Why would they say this?" and "What does this mean?" and we were able to use the videos to plan out our next steps.

So what does that mean?  If the design of learning requires it, then I shall be using more videos.  And more authentic ones at that where either I am creating the content for my learners or they are helping me co-construct them.

That brings in a nice segue with my film festival entry - it is a follow on from a video I helped a group create for our recent Break Through Exhibition where we created an educational video for learners.  We wanted to have a bit of fun with the topic and this is how the idea was created.

Reflections:

• It was quite clear to manage the balance between how much of my voice was going into the film compared to that of the kids.  I had to step back a few times as I did feel that I was telling more than instructing.
• I had to take the kids on the journey of film-making - it was an interesting conversation to have with many of them about why we would take multiple shots when they were happy when we did one.
• I really noticed that I need to work on my instruction giving.  At first, I was giving multiple instructions and the kids were getting lost after the second one and because they started off well, I stopped checking for understanding quickly into shooting.  Once things went off track a bit, I realised that I needed to make sure everyone was comfortable with the next scene.
• I actually forgot to have fun at one stage as I was caught up in the filming and directing of the video.
• Finally I lowered my expectations - I know that I am not Steven Speilburg or Peter Jackson and the kids are not actors getting paid for their skills.  The main thing was that the kids were enjoying themselves and communicating the story that they had created.

At the end of the day, I am really impressed with how the kids were able to learn skills such as storyboarding and use their dramatic skills to create a piece of learning that we all feel proud to share with the wider community come Term Four!